Some crimes are so heartbreaking or shocking that they change laws, change society, or even

earn the label, Crime of the Century.

But the stories that made headlines in decades past aren't necessarily remembered today.

I'm Amber Hunt, a journalist, an author, and in each episode of this show,

I'll examine a case that's maybe lesser known today, but was huge when it happened.

This is Crimes of the Centuries.

Thank you. This is Crimes of the Centuries. The Texas Death Chamber, where inmates convicted of particularly egregious crimes

breathe their last, is smaller than you think.

It's kept as a sterile environment, as if it were a surgical suite.

It's painted a vivid shale of teal.

The executioner, whoever he or she is, stays out of sight behind a one-way piece of glass.

The chamber is located inside the state's oldest prison in Huntsville, Texas.

Built in 1849, it's known by inmates and townies as the Walls Unit

because of its surrounding 15-foot-high red brick walls

that separate it from the rest of the small town's homes and its

nearby neighbor, Sam Houston State University.

It was built back when the city was basically two streets and a barber shop, but it's now

literally part of a nice neighborhood, like when you'd see anywhere, except this one has rifle-bearing guards positioned on

parapets overlooking it. Inside, some of the bars are still a highly polished brass. Clyde Barrow

once lived within its confines, so did serial killer Henry Lee Lucas. In the 1970s, it housed TV bounty hunter to be Dwayne Dog Chapman.

It's here, at the walls, where Texas has put to death nearly 600 individuals

since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.

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